Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb recently stated in an interview with HBO that he believes black quarterbacks face greater scrutiny than white quarterbacks. This is not the first time McNabb has been the subject of racial controversy; talking head Rush Limbaugh dismissed him as being overrated at his position simply because people want to see a black quarterback succeed.
As an avid sports fan, I find it fascinating to see how race, which is clearly still an issue in sports today, factors in with todays athletes and analysts. However, I believe that McNabb's beliefs regarding criticism towards black quarterbacks are greatly misguided. The reason McNabb gets criticized so much is because of his frequent injuries and poor play this season, not the color of his skin. McNabb playing this race card in this situation is irresponsible and careless. Why does an issue of criticism so frequently turn in to one of race? There are many examples of white quarterbacks facing a great deal of criticism. Earlier this season in New York, fans cheered when Chad Pennington was badly injured and had to leave the game due to his poor play. Before the team started winning again, Giants fans called up 660 WFAN (the premier sports talk radio program of New York) everyday to complain about how they wanted to get rid of Eli Manning. Criticism has nothing to do with race, it's all about the game of football. When the team wins, they love you; when it loses, you face scrutiny.
As a society we need to be able to look at sports (and larger social issues) and take away the race microscope used for looking at every detail. Even Titans quarterback Vince Young, who is black, said that he disagreed with McNabb and did not feel the scrutiny he was talking about. It is not a coincidence that Young played brilliantly last year while McNabb was hurt in the second half. I think McNabb will be pleasantly surprised to see the "racist" criticisms go away once his team starts winning again.
A line has been drawn, yet I do not think this issue is 100% one way or another. Race needs to be more carefully examined in sports so we are not so shocked (Don Imus, Isiah Thomas, Michael Vick) when a racial issue comes up. I would love to hear an opposing viewpoint; perhaps there's a middle ground I'm not seeing.
2 comments:
How's Vince Young doing now? Oh yeah, he completely caved under the pressure and is benched. He wouldn't last 10 seconds in McNabbs shoes with the Philly media and fans.
The most hurtful racial criticism against McNabb is not coming from the white media, but from Philly's mostly-black fans, mostly-black teammates, and even Philly's black NAACP leaders. Notice that McNabb never blamed the "white media"--he only said he faced more "criticism," but did not specify from whom. That's because he would get catch even MORE hell if he were more specific about how T.O. and his black teammates labeled him a "sellout" for not using his QB position to pressure the team owner to give other black players bigger contracts, or about how Philly's black fans and even NAACP leaders have accused him of "going white" when he tried to become more of a pocket quarterback to prevent further injuries.
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